Beautiful historic churches
We had a great campsite @ Finn Park Road - lot's of green-space!
This stop at Finn Campground in Essexville MI was mainly to have some chill days before we continued on, which we did. John also got to wash Julie(coach), as not many campgrounds allow that at your campsite. The Jeep also got a wash - the first time John has gotten to wash it vs automated carwashes, since we live in an apartment now. We enjoyed this beautiful campground right off Lake Michigan – the campgrounds are less crowded now that school has started back.
On the way to our campground, we drove thru Bay City, MI and saw so many historic churches on our way thru the town, we decided we would like to see some of them. We visited three historical churches, all of them registered as a Michigan Historic sites.
St. Stanislaus Kostka Roman Catholic
Church
The historic marker, which is in Polish on one side and English on the other, tells this history:
In the second half of the nineteenth century, Polish refugees who escaped Prussian domination settled in Bay City. In 1874 they formed a society under the patronage of Saint Stanislaus Kostka of Poland. To fill the needs of this Polish-speaking community, a wooden church was built and dedicated on December 13, 1874.
During the pastorate of Fr. Marian Matkowski, a grand Neo-Gothic church was erected at a cost of over $60,000. The cornerstone was blessed on June 24, 1890, and the church was dedicated on July 17, 1892 by Bishop Henry J. Richter of Grand Rapids.
During the pastorate of Fr. Marian Matkowski, a grand Neo-Gothic church was erected at a cost of over $60,000. The cornerstone was blessed on June 24, 1890, and the church was dedicated on July 17, 1892 by Bishop Henry J. Richter of Grand Rapids.
We loved the beautiful ornate high altar in the large open cathedral sanctuary and of course the beautiful stained-glass windows.
One side of the church
Baptismal
In 2010, a restoration of the 4,000-pipe grand organ in the balcony was completed, where the pipes were rearranged to uncover the beautiful stained-glass window on the back wall
**************************
At our next historic church stop, we unfortunately found the
First Presbyterian Church was closed/locked and as we walked to see
if we could get into the 2nd church near it, a guy stuck his head
out the window and asked if we wanted to see inside of Trinity Episcopal
Church – we said YES!
Dale met us outside and was clearly a man of great faith and
passion for the church (he was actually working on maintenance of the church) –
we ended up getting ~hour tour of this beautiful church, and learning the history
where he often quoted scripture. Then he
took us outside for a walking tour of the outside of the church next door, First
Presbyterian Church!
Trinity Episcopal Church
Built/Completed in 1887
Described as bold Victorian
because of the pointed arch windows.
The beautiful front and rear stained glass were initially
the
only windows commissioned by the church.
The stained-glass above the altar (depicts worship in Heaven from Book of Revelation) was built in London and installed in 1866 is known as the Children’s Window, because it was paid for by pennies saved/donated by children. The other in New York.. This window measures 9ft wide and 17 ½ feet tall!
The front stained-glass
In 1924, the parish installed the ornate carved altar
screen.
The other side windows were originally plain diamond stain glass patterns (above), over the years they have been replaced by beautiful stained-glass donated by parishioners, in memory of a love one below.
Dale told us that sometime in the late 1900’s, they were worried about the integrity of the church tower's four spiral corners and much to Dale’s dismay decided to remove those (which really shortened the height of the tower). Those spirals are now found placed in the grounds of the church.
First Presbyterian Church
While we couldn’t get in to see the inside of the church, Dale walked us around it & pointed out all of the stone carved faces around the exterior of the church.
Final tip from Dale - Dale told us about the Tall Ships races/rallies that was in July (happens every 3 years), where ships with tall sailing masts make their way along the lakes and stop at different towns/ports along the way.
Bay City is often voted the best stop - we would like to make it back up here for that one year!
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